Even the most hardened of Valve fans would be hard pressed to call the company's Steam Machine initiative particularly exciting. After all, with the exception of Alienware's Alpha or Asus' ROG, most of them are simply glorified tower PCs, rather than innovative pieces of console-like design. Today, however, that all changes with the Smach Zero, an x86-based portable Steam Machine that promises access to the 1000+ SteamOS games in Valve's library.

The Smach Zero is powered by an AMD G-Series SoC named Steppe Eagle, which features a Jaguar-based CPU paired with a GCN-based GPU. We don't know which G-Series SoC is actually being used, but presumably it'll be one of the 6W or 9W TDP parts (PDF). The CPU is probably clocked somewhere around 1GHz, and the GPU between 200-300MHz (it's roughly equivalent to an HD 8210E). Along with the SoC, there's 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (expandable via an SD card slot), a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, HDMI output, WiFi, and Bluetooth.

On the front of the Smach Zero there are "configurable tactile gamepads," which look suspiciously like the ones that Valve initially had on the Steam Controller before its redesign.

While AMD's G-Series chips aren't the most powerful out there, they are somewhat unique in that they pair an x86 CPU with an integrated GPU that doesn't completely suck. The conservative 720p screen means that reasonable frame rates should be possible in non-taxing games such as Half-Life 2, Cities: Skylines, and Dota 2. Fans of the latter will likely want to pick up the "Pro" model, which features built-in 4G so that you never have to stop laning.

What isn't specified is the size of the Smach Zero's battery, which—given the potentially power hungry internals—is a rather large oversight. AMD's G-Series SoCs can run from anything from 6W to 25W, depending on clock speed, while most typical ARM-based tablet SoCs peak at around 5W. Still, when it comes to low-power x86 with a half-decent GPU, AMD's G-Series is one of the few good choices available. Those interested in the Smach Zero can pre-order it from November 10 at a special introductory price of €299 (~£200 or $330), with delivery promised for a worryingly vague "2016."

I'm not so sure I'd want to take that bet personally, but if you're game, head over to the Smach Zero website to register your interest.

Further Reading

The Smach Zero is not the first device that's tried to cram desktop class components into a handheld. Back in 1989, the $2000 (£1300) Poqet PC crammed an 80C88 processor running at 7MHz and 640KB of SRAM into a subnotebook form factor. Amazingly, it ran on just two AA batteries, with power management that stopped the CPU between keystrokes, allowing the Poqet PC to last for weeks at a time.

My personal favourite, though—and something that I lusted after for years—was the OQO Model 01, released in 2004. The $2000 PC had a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe processor, 256MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive, and it ran Windows XP. Gosh, my heart races just thinking about it.